By Kyle Golik
Since the 2022 Pac-12 Championship game, Southern California is 11-9 and have only won two of their nine meetings against ranked opponents. It’s obviously not the results USC was seeking when they invested $110 million in Lincoln Riley to be their head coach. The question becomes now what would a failure against Penn State look like for Riley and his Trojans as they continue to rebuild the program.
That last little line may be key to the whole thing: As they continue to rebuild the program.
I feel strongly that the transfer class Riley brought in with him in 2022 only accelerated expectations. Caleb Williams masqueraded plenty of deficiencies in the Southern California offense and even defense as his ability to put up gaudy numbers almost excused Alex Grinch’s ineptitude as defensive coordinator. Williams wasn’t alone in that manner, as he was aided by running back Travis Dye and wide receiver Jordan Addison. They were the differentiators in a solid base that had Southern California flirting with College Football Playoff aspirations and Pac-12 Championship hopes.
When Williams was left to bear the full burden of all the deficiencies, his immortal feeling in 2022 made him quickly feel mortal in 2023. USC crash-landed to a 7-5 regular season and a defense that was amongst the worst in college football, allowing 34.4 points per game.
Riley has found stability in his defense so far through the 2024 season. The group has allowed 18.4 points per game. If you had to critique the efforts of the new defensive staff, it is still trying to figure out how to pressure the quarterback. Southern California is ranked 108th in the nation in sacks with six through five games. The Trojans haven’t had that elite edge rusher since Tuli Tuipulotu, 2022 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, and something new coordinator D’Anton Lynn needs in his attack.
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During Lynn’s revitalization of UCLA’s defense last season, he was able to maximize Liatu Latu’s ability off the edge and molded him into the top defensive player drafted in the 2024 NFL Draft. Lynn thought he had something clicked with senior Eric Gentry.
Through four games, Gentry had 30 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, a team-high two sacks and a forced fumble. Gentry suffered a leg injury during the Wisconsin game and the extent of that hasn’t been made available. Gentry did not play against Minnesota.
As Lynn put it simply prior to Minnesota, “You don’t really have a backup Eric. There’s no one else that can do all the stuff that he does.”
While Lynn missed Gentry against the Golden Gophers, safety Kamari Ramsey continued to shine in his second season in Lynn’s system. Ramsey, a UCLA transfer into Southern California, continues to uphold the tradition of excellence at safety for the Trojans.
Against Minnesota, Ramsey had a quarterback hit, forced fumble, and did not allow a completion in his coverage assignments, receiving an 88.5% coverage grade from PFF College.
Minnesota was not without controversy for Southern California: A review overturned the call on the field that Minnesota quarterback Max Brosmer was short and gave Minnesota the go-ahead touchdown. It was his third rushing score of the day. With 56 seconds remaining in the game, it capped a 12-play, 75-yard drive that ate over five minutes of possession time.
Riley became defensive when a member of the media asked starting defensive end Jamil Muhammad if he felt Brosmer got in.
“Don’t ask him that. Don’t ask him that. Next question. Who cares what he says on that? [You] want a player’s opinion? Let’s ask a more professional question.”
I don’t feel the question “Jamil, do you feel that last touchdown got in for Minnesota?” was unprofessional.
In a lot of ways, Riley needs to become a little more offended about his bread and butter because things haven’t gone smoothly for something that is a near certainty.
The Trojans once again got off to a slow start, something Riley isn’t sure about what the issues are. “Yeah, I don’t know. We were 7-0 after the deal the other day, so I mean, what we define as a start I know we can call it all what we want. We had a good drive there to start the game. Yeah, we want to get off to a good start, but at the end of the day, like I tell you guys, we’ve got to keep playing, and still, this team every time we’ve gotten off to a slow start we’ve come back and taken the lead late in the game every single time. So we talked about it a lot with the guys, we’ve emphasized it like crazy.”
What is also killing the Trojan offense is costly turnovers in the plus side of the field. Against Minnesota, Southern California had three turnovers, all outside the red zone and on the Minnesota side of the field.
“Yeah, I don’t know if there’s necessarily a theme. It’s been all parties involved. Just the tough ones for us has been, just like the first half of Wisconsin, I think all three of our turnovers tonight were in plus territory where we had good drives going. And again, those are times, especially when you’ve got a kicker like we do, man, those are points every single time you feel like when you get over there. And we typically expect to score a bunch of touchdowns there as well. Three drives ended in plus territory in a game like this where there weren’t many possessions, I mean, it was massive.”
The Penn State game will be a massive one in The Coliseum. A loss doesn’t equal the plug being pulled against Riley. A loss has to be seen as debt being accrued by Riley. At some point the debt threshold will be met and the question will be where the program is and if Southern California is willing to raise the debt threshold or not.
A team that has 10 starting defenders as transfers needs to begin building its foundation. Riley knows he can’t be heavily reliant in the portal – he got the pieces in place on his staff that are in the process of building that defensive culture. For now, Riley can afford to fail the Penn State test, but he realizes the debt he is accruing will be called upon soon enough.
